JSH Holiday Report: Clearwater Macy's has its Christmas display set up big time in full force, displacing a large area of their tableware/glassware section. (Their Halloween section consists of one very small rack of candy and plush pumpkin-men in the center of an aisle.) pic.twitter.com/ivZrNJudjy

Walmart and Target are also selling some holiday supplies, though Target seems to be showing some restraint. In 2017, Target announced it would avoid holiday displays and signs near the entrances of stores until after Thanksgiving.

*Adam & I are in Walmart & walk into the garden stuff. We see the Christmas trees set up*

“Christmas creep” isn’t a new phenomenon. People have been complaining about the holiday shopping season kicking off earlier and earlier since the 1980s.

“It’s like a mini-arms race,” Wharton marketing professor Stephen Hoch said in 2006. “The competition among retailers means nobody wants to be second. That moves the shopping season up a little bit more each and every year.”

The actual benefits of moving the holiday shopping season earlier remains unclear. In many ways, Christmas creep was a taste of things to come in the retail industry, as competitors’ attempts to undercut each other has led to the downfall of one of their most powerful weapons: Black Friday.

Retailers have found themselves forced to dilute Black Friday by opening stores earlier on Thanksgiving Day, kicking off more aggressive online sales, and offering deals year-round in an effort to stay competitive. In many ways, Christmas creep was just the first sign of the breakdown of a strict holiday shopping season, lasting from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve.

“The whole idea of Black Friday and Cyber Monday … is becoming less relevant as the consumer is generally accustomed to great deals,” Josh Elman, senior specialist at Nasdaq Advisory Services, told Business Insider last year. “It’s a little sad. But it’s just a sign of the times.